End of ADS-L Digest - 21 Mar 1995 to 22 Mar 1995
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There are 9 messages totalling 301 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. 'see' or 'say'
2. rabbit/rodent
3. Rabbit = Rodent?
4. Grammar Books (2)
5.
6. Words for 1995!
7. Picayune (2)
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Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 00:24:30 EST
From: Terry Lynn Irons
Subject: Re: 'see' or 'say'
My familiarity with the Northern Cities Shift is merely anecdotal,
based on eaves dropping in airports. In that regard, I came across an
utterance that is emblematic of what Labov describes as the low vowel
part of the shift in the north. As I was awaiting a flight, I overheard
not entirely unconsciously (is surreptitious listening unethical or illegal?)
two gentlemen talking and one, bragging or bemoaning exploits of the day
prior said, "Last night I lost my wallet in the bar." His vowels in the
first (last), fourth (lost), and sixth word (wallet) of this sentence
were all fronted from what are their cardinal positions (at least for me)
in Gen'ral Umurican.
My experience with the so-called Southern Vowel Shift is more direct,
and I suspect I may be undergoing it myself. I find it easier and easier
to pronounce the accusative form of the first person personal pronoun
with a mid front vowel in contrast with the high front vowel it became
as a result of the GVS. I hear this change all around me. But the
third person singular nominative form {he} does not seem to be affected
so. And many other words don't either.
I could run through many other examples, but I really have some questions
here. First, what does this example say about the Neo-Grammarian
dictum about the irreversibility of sound change? {me} was [me] then
became [mi] and now is [me] again?
The first time I talked to students about the SVS, a student
asked what I first reacted to as a stupid naive question but which I have
since come to see as crucial in this case. We were working through the
exercises in Walt's book on these contemporary vowel shifts, and
a student asked, "How are we supposed to know what the underlying
vowel is to apply the rule to?" (Extreme paraphrase from memory).
I said something like, "Well, you just know." And I went on about how
we have real time evidence that people pronounced
this pronoun with a high front vowel but that now some people used a
mid front vowel and blah blah blah.
Now I question the nature of this evidence. First, as I understand it,
Labov's work here seems to posit a homogeneous speech community that
has since diverged in accord with these shifting patterns. Where is the
evidence that the community was homogenous? What looks like change
and an actuation problem may not be that at all. It may be the case
that we have a continuity of several varieties all along (like for
400 years) and social scientists are simply now becoming aware of
that fact and are trying to explain it in the context of a bad
paradigm (i.e., XXXXXXX). It may be that some people said
[me] and never [mi] all the way back.
The other point I wish to raise is that this so-called
vowel shift may be simply a lexical change, that via
lexical diffusion may be later interpreted as a chain shift.
To use the introspective paradigm (I am my best informant,
if we can trust Noam), for me--which may phonetically be sometimes
[me] for me, but only variably--{we} and {he} are still [wi] and
[hi] for me. More importantly, others whom I have heard say [me]
for {me} show NO CHANGE WHATSOEVER in other areas of the pronominal
system in regards pronunciaton.
What Labov claims to be a vowel chain shift on the basis of limited
evidence provided to him by various students, I would suggest, might
be limited lexical change or a misinterpretation based upon lack
of appropriate historical evidence. Certainly, any such claims
must be supported by more quantitative evidence than is provided
in the 91 article or the most recent tome.
--
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Terry Lynn Irons t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msuacad.morehead-st.edu
Voice Mail: (606) 783-5164
Snail Mail: UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351
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